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pradmer posted:Underground Airlines by Ben H Winters - $3.99 Does anyone have an opinion on this one? I liked the Last Policeman series. This could be really interesting or have serious problems. Thanks for these posts! I've bought a ton of stuff on sale over the years.
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Aug 25, 2023 00:54
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Kestral posted:My mind boggles at the concept of an audiobook for TSCTW Oh my gosh, thank you for saying this. I had tried to listen to the audiobook after hearing such rave reviews, and I just could not continue after a certain point. Maybe it was the format, and not the people who are wrong. I’ll give it another shot with my eyeballs.
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Aug 25, 2023 08:01
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The sheer density of tricks it plays with the fonts and italics, the multiple perspectives within the same sentence, I don’t know how you could possibly do it in audio. Time to check this out. You should definitely have a look at the text, it’s wild.
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Remulak posted:Holy poo poo. Lmao gently caress
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Aug 25, 2023 08:33
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speaking of books that play typographical games, prestige sf movie adaptation alert!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAh-xgggcfI
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Aug 25, 2023 10:54
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can't believe they're making a live-action Etrian Odyssey movie
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Aug 25, 2023 11:23
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DACK FAYDEN posted:can't believe they're making a live-action Etrian Odyssey movie even on the big screen, FOE
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Aug 25, 2023 13:30
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Chas McGill posted:Who's a modern successor to Robin Hobb? I've got a cold and want to listen to a meaty fantasy series that is kinda low magic, character driven, not super high stakes, not needlessly edgy. RJ Barker The tide child trilogy and his latest Gods of Wyrdwood are pretty close to Hobb. Including torturing of his protagonists. Graydon Saunders wrote one decent book in the vein of Black Company and then the next books were completely tedious, easily explaining why Graydon is self published. I have since then realized how the goon bandwagon works with respect to book recommendations. Graydon, as you apparently read this thread, I want my money back for book two and three. Examples from the past in this thread: The traitor baru cormorant: decent read, but clear authors first book. Sorry Batuta, but at this point the goon census is stopping me from buying your books. Gideon: decent read but left me completely uninterested in further books. The spear cuts through the water: Decent, but those who found story elements shocking must have read only feel good novels. Three body problem: initial good reception in Thor thread which now have turned bad since the author is a misogynistic tankie. This thread have 50/50 hit rate in book recommendations for me which actually is a decent ratio. Cardiac fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Aug 25, 2023 |
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Aug 25, 2023 19:15
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Doobie Keebler posted:Does anyone have an opinion on this one? I liked the Last Policeman series. This could be really interesting or have serious problems. Your username brings back good memories. Here's some old thread discussion: "Just finished Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters (he also wrote the Last Policeman trilogy which is regularly on the discounted posts here and which I highly, highly recommend) and it was pretty good. Alternate history in which slavery has survived to the present day in a hardcore handful of Southern states which he makes much more plausible than it sounds, main character is an escaped slave forced into working for the US Marshals hunting down other escaped slaves, who stumbles upon a case where there's more than meets the eye and his bosses are particularly concerned about it, etc. Good readable thriller which takes a very unlikely premise and makes it seem real." "Admittedly, I only half-remember Underground Airlines at this point. I think I read it during 2020 (thanks COVID depression brain I guess), but I felt like the final act of the book did not hang together well at all, but iirc it was for issues with me suspending disbelief, not for the author's prose. Interesting, if horrifying, premise though." "underground airlines and golden state didn't work for me - the starting premises should have made for drastically different worlds" "It’s...a little problematic, and he’s not quite good enough to pull it off, imo. Interesting idea, tho " The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PI181JI/
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Aug 25, 2023 22:35
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pradmer posted:
I second this opinion of it. The premise was entirely too horrifyingly plausible and while the meat of the book was fascinating and the prose was good, the ending didn't quite come together. I didn't find the wrap up satisfying. To me it read like they wanted sequels, but it could be that the author didn't know what to do when they got there. I wouldn't say don't read it because the premise and prose are good enough. But I don't gush over it.
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Aug 25, 2023 23:33
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Also the "impossible to repeal" constitutional ammendments that enshrined slavery couldn't work that way given how the constitution works.
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Aug 26, 2023 00:23
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Oh sweet, thank you!
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Aug 26, 2023 02:39
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Hi friends, looking for fantasy recommendations! Some recently read books we enjoyed:
Especially appreciate world building and fantasy novels that stick to the rules they’ve established for the fantasy world.
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Aug 26, 2023 03:00
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Reading The Anubis Gates and enjoying it so far because, well, Tim Powers, but it's got me thinking: are there any good - which is to say, actually well-written and not just airport novel tier - books about a time-traveler going to the past and successfully exploiting their knowledge? I'm struggling to think of an example, there's usually a justification of "the timestream prevents you from making changes / you can't do anything to alter events because then you would never have been born" etc.
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Aug 26, 2023 03:19
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Book of the new sun
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Aug 26, 2023 03:20
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Ornery and Hornery posted:Hi friends, looking for fantasy recommendations! I have not read Fourth Wing but depending on why you loved it, you should probably either check out the OG dragonrider series (Anne McCaffrey's Pern, which I have read, and has no smut and great world building) or dive into Sarah J. Maas's entire back catalogue (which I have not, and is apparently mostly smut), or maybe Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments as a middle ground (I have read it and it has no smut but plenty of angsty romance subplot that I could only tolerate because the main fantasy plot was way more interesting).
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Aug 26, 2023 03:36
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Ornery and Hornery posted:Hi friends, looking for fantasy recommendations! Haha been a while since I’ve seen someone mention Kingkiller in a positive light. Hard to call it a trilogy when the third will never be released though. I can recommend Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell as the best book about wizards ever written. And anything by Joe Abercrombie as having a similar humor to The Blacktongue Thief. And if you like or have already read Abercrombie, check out KJ Parker’s later books.
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Aug 26, 2023 03:42
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Ornery and Hornery posted:Hi friends, looking for fantasy recommendations! You could check out the Chalion series by Lois McMaster Bujold. Close to universally liked here and also has good world and characters.
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Aug 26, 2023 03:53
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Leng posted:I have not read Fourth Wing but depending on why you loved it, you should probably either check out the OG dragonrider series (Anne McCaffrey's Pern, which I have read, and has no smut and great world building) or dive into Sarah J. Maas's entire back catalogue (which I have not, and is apparently mostly smut), or maybe Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments as a middle ground (I have read it and it has no smut but plenty of angsty romance subplot that I could only tolerate because the main fantasy plot was way more interesting).
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Aug 26, 2023 04:07
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I think the (weird, dubiously consensual) sex is mostly off-page.
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Aug 26, 2023 05:11
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Kestral posted:Reading The Anubis Gates and enjoying it so far because, well, Tim Powers, but it's got me thinking: are there any good - which is to say, actually well-written and not just airport novel tier - books about a time-traveler going to the past and successfully exploiting their knowledge? I'm struggling to think of an example, there's usually a justification of "the timestream prevents you from making changes / you can't do anything to alter events because then you would never have been born" etc. Leo Frankowski's Cross-Time Engineer series (but don't read them). L. Sprague de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall Arguably, Turtledove's The Guns of the South HopperUK posted:I think the (weird, dubiously consensual) sex is mostly off-page. Never go to DubCon.
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Aug 26, 2023 05:24
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Ornery and Hornery posted:Hi friends, looking for fantasy recommendations! I think you would probably quite like R F Kuang's Babel.
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Aug 26, 2023 05:36
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Hobnob posted:Also the "impossible to repeal" constitutional ammendments that enshrined slavery couldn't work that way given how the constitution works. If America ever reaches the point where slavery is enshrined as a constitutional amendment then I'm sure that whoever does it will also change how the Constitution works. Heck, even now it's not easy to strike an existing amendment. It takes an amendment to remove an amendment, no? So for it to happen a law would have to simultaneously be so popular that a supermajority of states approve and so unpopular that a supermajority disapprove.
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Aug 26, 2023 07:01
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Jedit posted:If America ever reaches the point where slavery is enshrined as a constitutional amendment then I'm sure that whoever does it will also change how the Constitution works. Like, I have no idea about this book that's being discussed, but slavery absolutely was enshrined in the US constitution, and enough of the country is being drip-fed revisionist textbooks about how slavery really wasn't that bad that it doesn't seem so implausible.
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Aug 26, 2023 08:18
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Ravenfood posted:Pern has no smut? I mean, some of them don't, but it's still there iirc. It's been a long while since I've read anything but the Menolly duology though, which has none. Maybe it's less than I remember in some of the other books. HopperUK posted:I think the (weird, dubiously consensual) sex is mostly off-page. What is on page is—as far as I can tell from the out of context snippets I've seen posted of Fourth Wing—nothing that anyone who loves Fourth Wing would blink an eye at.
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Aug 26, 2023 09:07
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pradmer posted:You could check out the Chalion series by Lois McMaster Bujold. Close to universally liked here and also has good world and characters. 2nded
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Aug 26, 2023 09:15
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Ornery and Hornery posted:Hi friends, looking for fantasy recommendations! Steven Brust's Taltos series definitely hits that criteria. It follows a human mobster/assassin in an Elven empire for about six books until the internal contradictions pile up enough send the main character on the lam. After that are a mix of contemporary and flashback books leading up to a grand finale that will probably be out in book #17 in 2025/26. It's got the heist vibes from Locke Lamora, the worldbuilding is very consistent - allowing for information that is being withheld from both the main character and the reader. There's a strong through plot. There's also a set of spinoff novels that are Thre Musketeers etc. homages. If you like this kind of thing, there will be more than 20 books, some short, some fat, by the time Brust is done. [*] [*]The first three books are colected here for cheap, [*]https://www.amazon.com/Book-Jhereg-Steven-Brust-ebook/dp/B018WXBHRG/ [*] [*]The Bujold Five Gods books are way better, but less of an exact match. I read both, be like mllaneza.
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Aug 26, 2023 09:34
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Do I recall Steven Brust turning out to be an rear end in a top hat of some kind? Annoying.
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Aug 26, 2023 11:42
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HopperUK posted:Do I recall Steven Brust turning out to be an rear end in a top hat of some kind? Annoying. Yeah, sex pest
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Aug 26, 2023 12:27
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Lead out in cuffs posted:Like, I have no idea about this book that's being discussed, but slavery absolutely was enshrined in the US constitution, and enough of the country is being drip-fed revisionist textbooks about how slavery really wasn't that bad that it doesn't seem so implausible. Also, technically slavery is still allowed under the constitution, as punishment for people who have been convicted of a crime. It's right there in first sentence of the 13th Amendment.
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Aug 26, 2023 13:01
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fez_machine posted:Yeah, sex pest Bah! Gross.
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Aug 26, 2023 13:15
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Jedit posted:If America ever reaches the point where slavery is enshrined as a constitutional amendment then I'm sure that whoever does it will also change how the Constitution works. I don't really care enough about the book to go back and check, but from what I remember in it Lincoln gets assassinated early and the civil war never happens. Instead there's a compromise where the N'th amendment says "States get to keep slavery legal and feds can't interfere" and an N+1'th amendment which says "The N'th amendment can never be repealed". This is presented as literally impossible to ever undo. Not politically impossible, the way, say, passing an amendment would be right now, but something that can never be changed. There's only, like, 4 states that still implement slavery, so more than enough free states to pass an amendment, but the idea of repealing the N+1'th amendment first apparently never occurred to them.
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Aug 26, 2023 15:29
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Guns of the South is more plausible.
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Aug 26, 2023 15:31
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Baudolino by Umberto Eco - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003PDMMYQ/
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Aug 26, 2023 16:34
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Hobnob posted:Also the "impossible to repeal" constitutional ammendments that enshrined slavery couldn't work that way given how the constitution works. Yeah but I'm thinking that the kind of people who think slavery is great aren't going to be concerned with the sanctity of something that could prevent them.
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Aug 26, 2023 16:46
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Hobnob posted:I don't really care enough about the book to go back and check, but from what I remember in it Lincoln gets assassinated early and the civil war never happens. Instead there's a compromise where the N'th amendment says "States get to keep slavery legal and feds can't interfere" and an N+1'th amendment which says "The N'th amendment can never be repealed". Now that's incredibly stupid writing in any period later than 1932.
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Aug 26, 2023 16:49
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Hobnob posted:Also the "impossible to repeal" constitutional ammendments that enshrined slavery couldn't work that way given how the constitution works. Of course all this stuff is nonsense that people make up as they go along anyway so the only thing that matters is whether everyone agrees that you can or can't do something when you're actually trying to do it
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Aug 26, 2023 16:49
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pradmer posted:Baudolino by Umberto Eco - $2.99 Well speaking of Kingkiller, this shares aspects of it as a man telling a story of his life that goes crazy places. The difference is it’s completely told on one book and Eco is a great author.
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Aug 26, 2023 16:50
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fez_machine posted:Yeah, sex pest God drat it . I was going to say that the Jhereg books are, if not tragic, somewhat melancholy.
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Aug 26, 2023 18:22
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Read 'The Last Astronaut' by David Wellington. Best....most simple way I could describe it would be....a Cronenberg[i]ish[/ish] 'Rendezvous With Rama' from hell. First half had me hooked with the mystery surrounding "the object". The second half turned into quite a slog....with Wellington failing to really land the imagery aspect of the alien landscape....or the aliens themselves. Sorry.....but repeatedly saying the "hands" or the "worms with teeth" just felt lazy.....and didn't help conjure much of an image. 6/10......because while the payoff was a bit of a letdown......the first half had me compelled. And it was a short book.....so I don't feel like a wasted a whole lot of time.
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Aug 26, 2023 19:23
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Indie August sale this weekend, ~300 indie fantasy, scifi, and horror books - https://promotions.narratess.com/ If anyone has recs/is part of the sale feel free to chime in
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Aug 26, 2023 19:56
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